Isis and Osiris: Defining the Power of Love

The great romantic poet John Keats wrote: "Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one..." To many romantics, the first couple ever, was Osiris and Isis, the Egyptian gods who were also credited with sowing the seeds of civilization. This awesome twosome has continued to, down the ages, show the beacon light to lovers who tend to give up hope and succumb to despair. For, if ever a couple underwent trial by fire it was his one.

The birth of Isis and Osiris is besieged with mystique and charisma. Their mother Nut was cursed with childlessness And yet the determined lady, through creative machinations, managed to conceive Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
Osiris, the good and kindly Egyptian god was married to the lovely Isis. The handsome couple was much sought after, loved and admired throughout Egypt. Osiris was hailed as the God of Love while Isis earned her stripes as the patron saint of women, children and mothers. It was a heady combination to begin with. Add to that their contribution towards enhancing the civilization and culture of Egypt. Osiris was a wise ruler who schooled his subjects in the tilling of land, vegetation and other crafts of agriculture. Do you wonder that most ancient Egyptians depicted him in green hues in their paintings? His wife and dearest consort Isis ruled wisely beside her husband for several years. Their joint happiness and success did not go down well with Set who burned with jealousy.

Set is depicted in Egyptian mythology as the God Desert, Storm, and Violence. And no wonder... It was the jealous Set, mortified by Osiris' success, who hatched an evil plan to trap the latter into a coffin that was already customized to size. As soon as Osiris stepped inside the coffin it was shut tight by Set's sycophants and pushed into the Nile.
When news reached poor Isis, she was shattered in the extreme. But adversity, as we all know, is a great tester. It brought out the determination and resolve that Isis had in ample reserve. Wiping her tears she set about looking for the coffin containing her dead husband. She wandered from land to land till she came to Byblos where she found the coffin next to a cedar tree which acted as one of the pillars supporting the main palace. Isis had to seek the permission of the queen to extricate the coffin containing the dead Osiris.

The evil Set, learning of Isis' discovery shattered the coffin to smithereens. Isis, once again bereft, set out on a painstaking journey to locate his pieces. As she found each one, she consecrated the place by getting a shrine constructed in his name. She finally pieced him together to revive him for a while. She was thus able to conceive Horus, their son, who finally avenged Osiris' death by killing Set.

Thus, Osiris also became the king of the after world as well as the God of the Dead. Such is the power of love.